Gato de Botas

This film is about a cat and an egg, who have been childhood friends, working together to find the golden goose to repay the town what they robbed years ago.

"Puss in Boots" is an adventure filled with fun and action. It has cute characters and colourful animation for children to enjoy. Puss has a wide variety of facial expressions, some of which are so cute that he is irresistibly cuddly. The songs and dance provide great entertainment too. Adults will find "Puss in Boots" entertaining too, as the plot is filled with proper adventure that is appropriate for both adults and children. The brotherhood subplot is strong and gripping, and provide the emotional elements to make "Puss in Boots" even more credible as a film for the whole family. I enjoyed watching it.

Puss in Boots was what I expected - interesting characters, some great laughs (including the Shrek-like humor for adults only), and an interesting backstory. Unfortunately, no cameos from major Shrek characters (I always get a kick out of Gingy).

Antonio Banderas does a great job voicing the "hero" Puss, and the movie provides Puss' history with some good laughs and great images. The big eyes look of the adult Puss is topped by the young Puss, and we learn how Puss received his name and his boots.

Humpty Dumpty is Puss' long-time friend, who becomes jealous of the young hero Puss and betrays him. But, Humpty Dumpty returns with a plan to achieve their lifelong goal - get the goose that lays the golden eggs. Humpty Dumpty has some funny lines and great visual humor. My favorite was Humpty wearing a golden egg costume.

Joining the adventure and rounding out the trio is Kitty Soft Paws, who transitions from Puss' nemesis to love interest. The pair has some great chemistry for animated characters. Their adventures include run-ins with Jack & Jill (not what anyone will expect), magic beans, the beanstalk, and the goose that lays the golden egg.

Overall, kids and adults will love the movie for its humor, cute characters, and action. Puss in Boots is a worthy spin-off of Shrek. And, the movie has a great message about learning from our mistakes, retribution, and making good choices.

Shrek had run its course, having forcefully pushed itself into a fourth film that was really too trying, but I suppose Puss in Boots, introduced in the second film of the franchise, proved to have nine lives, and extended his longevity through a spin off film of his own. After all, there are plenty of cat lovers out there, and his antics in the Shrek movies were undoubtedly the highlights when the Ogre and his pet donkey were getting really tired. Originally intended for straight to video, Puss in Boots proved to have what it takes for a big screen outing, and it didn't disappoint.

Dreamworks Animation may seem to have a stranglehold on making a mickey out of well known fairy tales, and this continues in its re-imagining of characters adopted for the Puss in Boots origin story, where we go into his background as an orphaned kitty cat brought up by Imelda (voiced by Constance Marie), only to disappoint his foster mum when he got betrayed by best friend Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), a brilliant inventive and creative mind who had turned to a life of crime, staining the honor that Puss had gained through a heroic deed, banishing him forever as an outlaw and bandit.

The two major story arcs in this film enriched the narrative, one dealing with the past of Puss in Boots, while the other having him reluctantly team up with Humpty once again if only to get close to his new squeeze, the master thief Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), to take on the very grown up and nasty Bonnie and Clyde inspired Jack and Jill (Billy Bob Thorton and Amy Sedaris), who are in possession of the fabled magical beans belonging to the other Jack (and the Beanstalk), where planting them at the correct spot would mean a path to the heavens to gain access to the goose that lays golden eggs, with repercussions of course that comes with a force of nature to be reckoned with.

What worked for Puss in Boots were the strengths of its story arcs, the major set action pieces, the voice cast really providing that level of flair to the many flamboyant characters in the film as well as dramatic, emotional depth to key characters, and who can forget the comedy. There are plenty of sight and verbal gags, and innuendos galore that hardly a moment goes by without something naturally hilarious happening, and does so quite subtly without screaming and forcing their way down your throat. Which I had found the later Shrek films guilty of doing just that.

Antonio Banderas provides the voice for Puss in Boots, and it's quite convenient that the character gets modelled after Zorro through a series of identifiable elements from costuming, behaviour as well as style, a character that Banderas himself have played twice in live action films. Puss continues to drawn upon established abilities especially that of its iconic hypnotic eyes, which somehow in a self-fulfilling fourth wall prophecy, will have any audience in stitches as well as held in captivating aww/awe. Zach Galifianakis voices the misunderstood character Humpty Dumpty to perfection, providing that balance of villainy and sympathy, while I suspect that the animators would have had a field day with Humpty especially with the plenty of movement gags that he got himself into, and playing upon none too subtle fat jokes on the character, resulting in the character stealing the scene most of the time. Hayek on the other hand did just enough providing her sultriness to the incredibly sexy feline that looked like, erm, Batman in costume.

Hitting the right notes consistently throughout the film, here's a pussy cat that's both a lover and a fighter and a film that can appeal to both young and the not too young at heart alike. The producers of Shrek and Kungfu Panda may have found itself another character that has enough legs to carry off yet another franchise on its own, but please don't let it merge or include characters from Shrek too soon, as this kitty deserves a rogues gallery and supportive allies of its own. Recommended!

Now before we begin, I'll make this quick on what i thought of the Shrek films. The first one, at the time, was a clever work of art that got Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy as a pretty good duo of animation voices for quite a while now. It was fresh, new, and one of Dreamwork's best CGI animated features. Shrek 2, was absolutely amazing. It took everything that made the original Shrek good and made it an amazing comedy! It introduced Puss in Boots as a spin-off of Zorro just hysterical, ESPECIALLY since he's played by Antonio Banderas, who played Zorro in the Martin Campbell movies, Mask of Zorro and Legend of Zorro. Overall, Shrek 2 is by far one of the best sequels that could ever be made by Dreamworks. Now for Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After, all i got to say for those films is.......meh. they were okay.

So now, Dreamworks still has a good hold for the franchise, but now with Puss in Boots. So how was it? well, let's discuss it first.

The movie's what you expect it to be, an origin story of the whiskered outlaw with boots. It explains his backstory on how he became an outlaw and what he did to redeem himself of being no longer the villain his home town thought him to be, seven years after he was betrayed by a former comrade. For what it gives us, it's a pretty entertaining movie and shows a lot to give.

Antonio Banderas reprises his role as Puss, and does a good a job as he always he does. Salma Hayek plays Kitty Softpaws, Puss's love interest and a master thief. She could take the shirt off your back so fast, it'd take you 10 seconds to realize you lost it. Hayek's not unfamiliar with working with Banderas, so she knows the right style of acting to choose with him. Zach Galifianakis plays Humpty Alexander Dumpty, and is pretty good in the role. Despite being in the Hangover movies with barely anything funny once in a while, he at least tries to give a pretty good performance. Guillermo del Toro has a pretty good cameo in the film, and it works out well, since he's also the executive producer of the film.

One more thing I want to talk about is the 3D in this film, and this film's in the category for good 3D. Animation. The animation in the film, while CG, is gorgeous. Dreamworks has a thing for making such well made animated films, becoming it's own stronghold for CG animation, along with some of their films to have some well done action. Sure, i still prefer hand drawn animation, but i'm not saying CG animation is bad. I'm just saying it's overused. But back to the 3D. Like i said, animated films are one of the only category in movies that work best for 3D. And for this, it looks amazing. Is it as good as Pixar 3D movies? No, but it's still worth it.

Overall, Puss in Boots is a fun family film that really knows how to be entertaining. It's comedy, action, and dark story all in one.

This movie must have been one of the first to take a frankly secondary (but funny) character from an animated film and to give it a prominent place in a film of its own. Its a fad of animation studios that has not always been able to make good movies but has certainly helped to increase their profits.

The first appearance of this cat is during "Shrek" franchise, but in this film we can see Puss in Boots in a different way, mixing "Zorro" with elements of the traditional tales "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Chicken of the Golden Eggs". I think it's not necessary to mention that cinematography and animation are excellent and everything looks quite beautiful and elegant. The performance of voice actors is good, with António Banderas and Salma Hayek in the lead. It's an entertaining movie, to please both young and adult, and will definitely be a good choice for a "family get together" evening.